‘Our elders are supposed to know better, to be wiser, yet I see no leadership and no plan.’
Photograph: UK Parliament/Mark Duffy/PA

Nine months ago I was part of a group of young people who started a political campaign. We wanted our voices to be heard on Brexit. We’ve now built a national movement across campuses, schools, towns and cities.

We’ve gone from being laughed at to offering the most credible way forward. And in doing that, we’ve been able to engage directly with some brilliant, principled politicians across all parties. In contrast to how they are usually seen, I have come to believe that most – even some of those with whom I disagree – are in this for the right reasons.

But the past few weeks have filled me with a sense of dread about this new and peculiar world we find ourselves in. It is now less than 100 days until Brexit and, as each day passes – with no vote on any deal or parliamentary progress to avert impending crisis – this anxiety increases. The respect I have gained for the political class is in danger of turning to disgust.

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Our elders are supposed to know better, to be wiser, yet I see no leadership and no plan: nothing for my generation but prolonged posturing. Rather than engage meaningfully, the prime minister and the leader of the opposition appear to have focused their entire energy on political brinkmanship and time-wasting.

Theresa May continues to threaten the country with the prospect of a suicidal no-deal Brexit if she cannot force through a plan that even her own cabinet knows is all but dead. Her ministers tweet their support for her in public but manoeuvre behind her back. For every Jo Johnson or Sam Gyimah who resign on principle, dozens more cling to their ministerial limousines.

Where we might have hoped for voices of reason, we see remainers such as Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt ingratiating themselves with the ever-shrinking, ever-aging Conservative base by acting like hardcore Brexiters. Both of them now say they are sanguine about a no-deal eventuality, something they vehemently opposed just months ago.

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Why could this be? Is the Conservative party really only able to elect a future leader who will welcome a catastrophic no-deal with open arms? They can wave goodbye to the support of my generation if they do. Most Tory MPs spent the last week far more animated by internal spats and Brexit fantasies than the grave political crisis we are in. Shamefully, May pulled the vote on the withdrawal agreement, leading to unabated coverage for her party’s European Reform Group ideologues – who declare no confidence in their leader while claiming Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg would be capable of delivering a better Brexit. It is a farce.

And at the same time Jeremy Corbyn, who symbolised a bold and different approach to politics to so many young people like me, now seems to be in thrall to the same techniques of triangulation and gamesmanship he once despised in others.

Labour says its priority is a general election and will only campaign for a people’s vote if it fails to secure that. But it admits the numbers are not there to succeed with a motion of no confidence and does nothing.

This is not only Labour ducking its duty, it is poor politics. After all, it was my generation that propelled Corbyn to the brink of Downing Street last year. And my generation will turn its back on him if he betrays us now. One poll last week shows Labour’s support among young people would plummet from 60% to 33% if it helps enable Brexit.

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I am part of a generation that has experimented with political engagement in a way that most young people have not for 30 years or more. But what we’re witnessing from our political leaders makes me want to recoil once more. In October 700,000 people – many of them young – marched peacefully through the streets of London calling for the public to be given the final say on Brexit. We have since taken a bus to every corner of the country, with the statistic that 77% of young people don’t want Brexit emblazoned on the side. We’ve been to hundreds of schools and have heard the same messages time and again: we are scared about how Brexit will affect our futures; many of us did not have a say in the initial vote; and if we were given a chance to make our voices heard we would vote to stay in Europe.

There is no Brexit deal from either the right or the left that can deliver the cake-and-eat-it fantasies we were fed in 2016. And there is no deal that is better than the one we already have.

Thousands upon thousands of young people are throwing everything they possibly can into their vision for a positive future inside the European Union. We are engaged with politics. But it’s difficult to engage with politicians who care more for their careers than our futures and those of generations to come.